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f in the next few years a video game teaches you anything — how to conserve energy, eat a balanced diet or solve quadratic equations — consider the invisible hand of one of the most unconventional White House hires in recent memory.MORE: Five hot video games to watch forBLOG: Game Hunters track video games, interactivesSteinkuehler studies video games. Since last September, she has been a senior policy analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she's shaping the Obama administration's policies around games that improve health, education, civic engagement and the environment, among other areas.Log on, play and learn

USA TODAY's Greg Toppo asked Asi Burak, co-president of Games for Change, to pick five powerful online games that show the genre's educational potential. Here are his picks:iCivics. Inspired by retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the series of games teaches players how government works.